Yuval Bitton: The Dentist’s Journey in Prison – From Treating Inmates to Confronting Terror

Create a news article using this content His name is Yuval Bitton, but in prison they called him by another name: “The Doctor”. Yuval Biton served as a dentist in prisons and as commander of the intelligence division of the prison service. “To think that such a thing would meet my family – my nephew was kidnapped to Gaza, enemies I knew in prison for many years, they are the ones holding my nephew,” he says. There are few people who sat face to face with the architects of the murder. Let’s talk about Sinwar. How many hours do you have with him? “Lots. Who even thinks he’ll ever be released?” The doctor will take us on a journey to the most guarded wing of the prison, and we will travel with him to see the destruction in Nir Oz. “If you fall asleep for a moment, you get hit. Even in prison. When we would see that it was quiet, something was wrong,” says Bitton about his days in prison. Yuval Biton in neighborhood D in Be’er Sheva where he was born “The assistant was a security prisoner, two life sentences” Let’s go back to the beginning for a moment. You were born in neighborhood D in Be’er Sheva, you were in the Air Force, you went to study medicine, and then you were placed, where? “I’m supposed to be a doctor in the prison service and I’m a dentist in Nafha prison. I once treated someone who looked so innocent. They’re finishing the treatment, then one of the guards says: ‘It’s messed up line 405.'” How complicated is it to be a dentist in a place like this? “Very much. A doctor has to give something of himself. When you treat, there is some kind of closeness, you treat someone, you give something of yourself.” Isn’t that scary? “In the first years there were no assistants in the Shavas, so the assistant was a security prisoner, Abu Ali Yetta, two life sentences.” And you are not worried? “This is the reality. It’s me, him and a Hamas prisoner, alone. And if a scalpel is needed. Then ‘Abu Ali, bring a scalpel’. He can just as well butcher me.” When did you know the prisoner Yahya Sinwar? “I know him. When I become a dentist, I start studying this population.” “And the Israelis must understand that we, as Hamas, will not be lovers of Zion,” Sinwar said in an interview with Channel 2 from 2006: “Sinwar, just as he was outside in charge of investigations and exposing collaborators, he does the same in prison,” describes Bitton. I mean, he interrogates people, Hamas prisoners inside the prison, on the suspicion that they are collaborating? “Until death”. What is until death? “Until death, murder. Beheading.” Is it in your hands? “He guides others, it doesn’t matter.” “Interrogation of prisoners to death”. Yahya Sinwar Photo: ap He became an expert on the psyche of security prisoners His ten years as a dentist made him an expert on the psyche of security prisoners. He got to know everyone’s groups, ambitions, struggles and ideas. Then he decides to make a career change and becomes an intelligence officer, to be the one who recruits sources and collects information in the prison, and he will reach the position of head of the intelligence division of the prison service. It is not a trivial transition for a dentist to move to intelligence. “no, not at all”. Raises eyebrows at first, I guess, doesn’t it? “Everyone”. How do the inmates receive your pass? “shock”. Yahya Sinwar, today the head of Hamas in Gaza, builds his power and status in the Israeli prison during those years, and the doctor sees it closely. Two prisoners who are kept in segregation. Where are the proportions?” says Bitton. And why is he willing to go further than his predecessors? “Because he is willing to pay any price for the principle.” In October 2011, the Netanyahu government approves the Shalit deal, 1,027 prisoners were released in exchange for it. Among them is Salah Arori, the head of Hamas in the West Bank, who met with Nasrallah and Sinwar this week. “He, in fact, does not have the blood of Jews on his hands, he has the blood of Palestinians on his hands.” of collaborators. “Cooperators, then, on an emotional, conscientious, value level, it’s actually easier for Israel to release him. But those who know him, know that the price of releasing one of these is much worse and higher than anyone else, because his abilities are destructive.” And you say that. “Of course I say that.” And what do they tell you? “The Shin Bet and whoever made the decision did not ask the Shin Bet at all.” And here is something else from the same deal: everyone who was released then was asked to sign a form that he undertakes not to engage in terrorism. “He refuses. And what did Israel do? It released him, even though he did not sign.” “His abilities are devastating.” The head of Hamas in the West Bank, Saleh al-Aaruri Photo: “Tamir put a vest on him, kissed and left” At the Urim junction, at the entrance to the Gaza Strip, we meet Nir Ader, the nephew of Yuval from Kibbutz Nir Oz. Since that Saturday he has not returned there. Now we go out to the place that was his home. Nir: “Here, in this neighborhood in Nir Oz, there are many, many murdered people, this is a neighborhood of veterans. A 13-year-old girl was murdered here. Did you see the video where you see the terrorist with a screwdriver and one with a machine gun in the window trying to break into this house?”, he points to the house where The video was taken. Nir Adar Hahain, Song of the House Benir Oz from Hamas The terrorists try to break into a house in Nir Oz in a Hamas video On the seventh of October, Nir was here with his two daughters, four-year-old Rani and six-year-old Noga. He let them watch the videos, told them there was an army exercise outside and held the door. “Holding her like this”, he shows us how. “Standing like this for six hours. Total darkness.” Yuval: “And do you hear the shots?” Nir: “I hear everything, both behind and in front. They shoot here and shoot there. Yes, and I’m also standing here and… the girls are here – and they’re standing here for me,” he recalls the dramatic moments. Yuval Biton with his nephew Nir who demonstrates how he held the door of the MMD When he came out, his world collapsed. The pictures of his grandmother being kidnapped on a scooter were broadcast all over the world. When he came out, Nir found out that his grandmother had been kidnapped. Yaffe Adar in the captivity of Hamas Photo: Photo from the social networks according to Article 27A of the Copyright Law We continue to the house of Tamir, Nir’s brother, Yuval’s nephew. “They just went on a rampage,” Nir says of the Hamas terrorists who left traces of their actions at home. “My sister-in-law is sitting here with my two nephews, a three-and-a-half-year-old girl and a seven-year-old boy. Tamir is a member of the emergency department, he puts a vest on him, kisses and leaves.” “No one knows anything.” Yuval with Tamir Adar, the kidnapped nephew what do you know about your nephew What do we know to say? Yuval: “I don’t know anything. Nobody knows anything.” When was his last call? “It’s half past eight on Saturday. He wrote a message to his wife, Lahadas, to hide in the MMD, don’t open the door, even if I beg you.” Nir: “Holocaust. They came to destroy everything.” Yuval: “Burn people alive.” Nir: “During the event, you also hear them laughing and intoxicated. What is that, they were at a celebration.” And also to think of another thing, some of which you have taken care of. Yuval: “Yes. Look, we were brought up on other values. On morality. We can’t do what they do.” “They didn’t know the monster next to them.” Nir Oz after the massacre “We saved Sinwar’s life in prison” At this moment in the burnt house in Nir Oz, the doctor remembers what happened to prisoner Yahya Sinvar in 2004. “He had an abscess,…